Community spotlight

In celebration of #HyperledgerWomen, we asked some of the many excellent women leaders in our community to share some details about their blockchain journey, including how they got started, what projects get them excited and advice they’ve received or have to share. 

Read on for part II of this story where we hear from:

Hanna Zubko, Co-Founder and CEO at IntellectEU

 

Melanie Cutlan, Managing Director, Blockchain & Multiparty
Systems Co-Lead at Accenture

 

 

Sandra Ro, CEO, Global Blockchain Business Council

 

 

How did you get into the innovation/technology space?

Melanie Cutlan: “I was about 10 when I learned to code and have been hooked on technology ever since. I graduated from ASU with a CIS Degree in business – and I have always enjoyed the convergence of tech applied to solve business problems in new ways.

I have been in the innovation space for over 10 years, helping clients and teams adopt new technologies to rethink how they get work done. I helped to launch our Tech Masters program, which inspired business users to learn how to apply simple technologies to their day-to day-work, while running programs to make Emerging Technologies more approachable and easier to understand for the business user. I then created a team to explore how emerging technologies could disrupt our core service offerings, making the “next new” tangible for our business stakeholders and our clients.”

When and/or how did you first learn about DLT/blockchain?

Melanie: “In 2015, while running an innovation team – the Tech Garage – we were looking for ways that we could apply Blockchain to solve back office problems inside Accenture and within our scope at clients. I was immediately amazed by the possibilities and have dedicated my career to it ever since.”

Sandra Ro: “I first learned about blockchain and crypto through the FX trading community in London in late 2011. Once I really understood Satoshi Nakamoto’s bitcoin white paper (had to read a few times before the lightbulb moment), I realized it could be a paradigm shifting technology, a breakthrough that could disintermediate the financial system. Though I was initially focused on bitcoin and blockchain technology as a game-changer for the foreign markets, I eventually appreciated the potential for the technology to build alternative systems to help us develop more resilient and decentralized systems.”

What’s a blockchain project you’ve worked on that got you excited about the technology?

Hanna Zubko: “Our team at IntellectEU worked on dozens of projects across capital markets, payments, insurance, KYC and identity domains, so it’s hard to pick just one. However, one project that made me particularly excited about how blockchain technology can positively impact our lives and our planet is MyWaste, focused on incentivizing more recycling among the population. Our team worked very closely with The Studio (now part of the Fairville venture), the innovation arm of Belfius, one of Belgium’s leading retail banks, to build the MyWaste application. MyWaste introduced a MyWaste token that rewards end-users for their ecological sustainability efforts. These tokens can then be spent at local merchants on “green” products and, more importantly, make citizens aware of their waste production and incentivize more recycling and reuse. Here are some of our other blockchain projects that I am proud of: https://intellecteu.com/#case-studies.”

Melanie: “All of them! As co-lead of our Blockchain & Multiparty Systems, I am working with clients across all industries across our three priorities – Digital Identity, FS Infrastructure and Supply Chains.”

Sandra: “Before GBBC, I ran CME Group’s FX and Metals Research and Product Development, where we began quietly researching cryptocurrencies back in 2014. Ultimately, we launched a new business department within the firm dedicated to crypto and blockchain called Digitization. It was under the umbrella of Digitization at CME that we launched the Bitcoin pricing indices and subsequently, BTC futures, which trades and is the dominant USD cash-settled BTC futures today. At the time, CME Digitization was on the cutting-edge of institutional enterprise blockchain projects. During this time I had the chance to meet with over 200 start-ups and was a founding member of numerous blockchain associations, including Hyperledger. At that point, I decided to dedicate 100% of my time to blockchain for social impact, particularly widening financial access to those most excluded.” 

What’s an entrenched problem you hope blockchain will help solve?

Hanna: “The problem of TRUST and resulting challenges of reconciliation and digital asset record keeping. It occurs in so many situations when enterprises interact with each other ranging from Know Your Customer (KYC) to sharing patient record data, as well as insurance claim management, IP management, and royalty payouts.”

Melanie: “If I may pick a favorite problem to solve, I am excited to see responsible and sustainable supply chains for food. Giving a face to those who grow our food, and incentivizing sustainable practices for the raw materials, without extracting the value to the larger players at the end of the supply chain. I am excited to see multi-tier supply chains coming together, providing resiliency, helping adapt to disruptions in supply chains, and ensuring a consistent supply of food to those who need it most.”

Sandra: “There is a tremendous amount of friction in many business processes in nearly every industry, government sector. A good example of such frictions is in cross-border payments, particularly for those for who can least afford to be paying high fees and wish to send small notional amounts. The blockchain and digital asset communities have the ability to affect real change in the space by bringing new solutions to the table, and forcing incumbents to innovate in ways that have a real and tangible impact on the lives of millions.”

What advice do you have for women looking to get started in this space OR what was the best advice someone gave you?

Hanna: “Get involved with Hyperledger! Blockchain is a growing space, and it has a significant need for more talented people, especially women, to join it. You may choose to contribute to one or several of Hyperledger’s open source projects. Also, the majority of Hyperledger member companies in our community are hiring. We are hiring at IntellectEU as well and would love to have you join us!”

Melanie: “By the very nature of emerging technologies, there are not experts that have been in the space much longer than you. Jump in, help shape the future of Multiparty Systems from the ground up. The ecosystem is in need of technologists, consultants, strategists, entrepreneurs within technology providers, service providers and industry constructs.  There is such a need for talent.  Bring your best, and take a chance on yourself to learn something new, apply something old in a new way, and have some fun reshaping the future of industries with new technologies.”

Sandra: “There are a myriad of skill sets needed in this burgeoning industry, and we need women of all kinds of backgrounds to get involved. My only suggestion is to dive in, even if you are not exactly sure of what you want to do. The sector is growing so quickly, there are opportunities being created each day, and no matter what the future may bring, this is a collaborative technology, so get stuck in, be curious, and help one another.”

Help us highlight the role of women in blockchain by tagging others in the community with #HyperledgerWomen.

In celebration of #HyperledgerWomen, we asked some of the many excellent women leaders in our community to share some details about their blockchain journey, including how they got started, what projects get them excited and advice they’ve received or have to share. 

Read on for part I of this story where we hear from:

Bobbi Muscara, founder of Ledger Academy; Hyperledger TSC Member and chair of the Hyperledger Learning Materials Development Working Group

 

Grace Hartley, Strategy & Operations Associate at ConsenSys; Hyperledger TSC Member

 

Joan Zerkovich, Senior Vice President, Operations at American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS)

 

 

How did you get into the innovation/technology space?

Bobbi Muscara: “As a Trained Educator and Computer Scientist, it was natural to develop a career in teaching and developing learning materials for the constantly changing technology field. One of my first positions was with a company that created a medical system that enabled nurses and doctors to have a digital medical record (circa 1988).”

Grace Hartley: “I started at ConsenSys two and a half years ago in the Protocols Group. We are the team who originally built and submitted Hyperledger Besu to Hyperledger. Prior to joining ConsenSys, I was working as a financial services consultant and didn’t have any blockchain experience. Since joining ConsenSys, I have slowly built my blockchain knowledge. I am constantly amazed at how active the blockchain ecosystem is. Everyday there is a new announcement with a new product launch or technical innovation.”

Joan Zerkovich: “My Bachelor Degree is in Biochemistry, and I got my certification as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist right after graduation. I was hired as a Research Associate at the University of California, Davis Medical School, right out of training, and I felt I needed to learn about computers to handle the multivariate data we were collecting and processing. I started taking Computer Science classes (they were free to staff on a limited basis) and learned how to program in C and to use BMDP on a mainframe. At some point, I had taken enough classes that I was asked to apply to the Computer Science program in order to keep going, but I decided to get an MBA with an emphasis on Information Technology instead. Oddly enough, the best class I took as part of the MBA program was on computer networks from a very forward thinking professor. I wrote my thesis on the importance of computer networking in the future.

As soon as I graduated, I was hired as the first Network Administrator for the University of California, Davis, as part of building NSFNet that eventually became the Internet. I ended up serving as the Chair of the Technical Committee for the Bay Area Regional Research Network (BARRNET) and then became the Director of the IT unit focused on new Internet based services.  We brought up the first web server, distributed file system and authentication database applications for the campus. It was part of my job to participate in the IETF.  It was a dream job, great people, fun work, intellectually challenging. I never looked back to medical research.”

When and/or how did you first learn about DLT/blockchain?

Bobbi: “In 2016, I started reading papers based on blockchain technology and became fascinated. I audited several online courses and became active in several online communities including, most notably, Hyperledger. I opened a blockchain training center, Ledger Academy, in 2017 and have been successful in obtaining contracts to develop learning materials for several sources.”

Grace: “My dad was actually the first person to talk to me about blockchain. He was asking me about the technology, and I got curious and did some research on my own. I became so curious that I applied for jobs in the blockchain industry and luckily landed at ConsenSys.”

Joan: “I was aware of blockchain for cryptocurrency for a while before I understood the power of DLT for business applications. I attended a PlugandPlay conference in the Bay Area in December of 2017 to learn more about insuretech startups. DLT technology wasn’t prominent in the presentations or solutions, but it was discussed on the fringes and, for some reason, I had an aha moment. DLT underpinnings would be critical to trusting insuretech data for claims. That led me to research DLT outside of cryptocurrency in more detail, and I came to the conclusion that it would be important to my company in order to transform our data operations. I then facilitated a strategic planning session with the AAIS leadership team in January 2018 to discuss how it could change the way the insurance industry exchanges information and eliminates statistical reporting. We started the openIDL proof of concept in May 2018 and demonstrated the first working prototype in August 2018.”

What’s a blockchain project you’ve worked on that got you excited about the technology?

Bobbi: “In the summer of 2019, Ledger Academy hosted Princeton Meetup groups that developed a Proof of Concept for a Social Impact Project called The Giving Chain with the R2D application. We created a supply chain blockchain that tracked donors to recipients on a local level in a decentralized system. The project was recognized at the US Capital by winning the 2020 Government Blockchain Association’s Social Impact award.

Joan: “openIDL”

What’s an entrenched problem you hope blockchain will help solve?

Joan: “openIDL focuses on improving data privacy and security as well as the auditability of information exchanges and transactions in insurance so companies can trust how data is used for analysis and reporting. However, the framework is applicable to any industry and any exchange of information. The goal is to improve the ability of companies to exchange information without exchanging confidential data, close to real time; to enable secure, real time reporting and to enable public policy decision making on current data, not stale data feeds often over a year or two old. 

Certainly blockchain will have a transformative impact on identity management, medical information and provenance to name a few that are extremely important. openIDL can be a part of those solutions, but they weren’t the driver for openIDL.”

What advice do you have for women looking to get started in this space OR what was the best advice someone gave you?

Bobbi: “I am amazed at how many opportunities the blockchain space is opening up. For anyone trying to get involved, my suggestion would be to learn as much as possible and join the online communities. One of the core themes in blockchain is its decentralized nature, which implies community. The entire blockchain effort is only as strong as the members that support it,  so sign up for webinars, join working groups and read up on blockchain topics that interest you. I found becoming a member of the Hyperledger Special Interest and Working Groups opened up opportunities that brought me to the Dutch Consulate in NYC, The Big Apps Blockchain Challenge in NYC, Hyperledger Global Forum in Arizona and the GBA Awards Ceremony in Washington DC.”

Grace: “The best advice I can give to women is to apply to the open jobs. There are significantly less women applicants than men applicants for blockchain roles. Most roles, including engineering but also some business roles, often do not require prior blockchain experience so don’t be shy to throw your resume into the conversation or reach out to the hiring manager.”

Joan: “I don’t recall ever getting any advice about entering the technology world. I just ended up there and navigated the waters. I’m sure I was surrounded by unwelcoming cultures, skepticism of my abilities (I’m not technically strong) or closed doors at times, but my recollection is that I would keep on moving until I found the right people, the right organization and the right project to work on. From my perspective, the best advice I can give is for women to approach their work and to deal with obstacles as technology or business issues and not gender issues.  When you run into an obstacle, pivot; find a way around it and keep going. It may mean you have to leave a team or a company or a project to keep going but it’s usually the best thing to do. Once you find the right place, do your best work.”

Help us highlight the role of women in blockchain by tagging others in the community with #HyperledgerWomen.

Cover image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

 

 

 

 

 

To help celebrate #HyperledgerWomen here in the month of March, we are spotlighting just some of the women who are driving forces in our community. These women wear a variety of hats but all play important roles in advancing the development and deployment of enterprise blockchain technologies. 

Help us highlight the role of women in blockchain by tagging others in the community with #HyperledgerWomen.

Tracy Kurt, Accenture

Tracy Kuhrt is a Senior Technology Architect within Accenture’s Blockchain and Multiparty Systems group with 20+ years of experience covering the entire software development lifecycle. Tracy has been involved in the blockchain space since 2015, with a focus on Hyperledger. At Accenture, besides architecting and delivering solutions for clients, Tracy is educating the next group of Blockchain and Multiparty Systems Technology Architects, is a frequent speaker on the topic, and is an advocate for inclusion and diversity in the technology. Tracy drove Accenture’s efforts to open source its Blockchain Automation Framework and Blockchain Integration Framework as Hyperledger Labs.

Tracy is currently a member of, and one of the first women elected to, the Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee and a Hyperledger Lab Steward. Check out her recent talk at Hyperledger Global Forum 2020 on creating an inclusive community and blog on contributing to the Hyperledger Labs. Prior to Accenture, Tracy served as a Community Architect at Hyperledger, where she worked to build the community, evangelized Hyperledger and its projects worldwide, and helped develop the first Hyperledger EdX course.

ConsenSys

The PegaSys team at ConsenSys is focused largely on the development of Hyperledger Besu. There is a core of women working together to drive this project, including:

Madeline Murray is a product owner for privacy and documentation at the protocol engineering team at ConsenSys. She is part of the product development team and works with engineers to define, deliver, and document Hyperledger Besu functionality. She has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Otago and runs marathons in her free time.

Sally MacFarlane is a Software Engineer at PegaSys, and has been working on Hyperledger Besu (among other things) for two years. The codebase has grown and changed significantly over that time, with many features added. Sally writes code, reviews PRs, updates the wiki and lurks on Rocketchat. Sally is based in Australia.

Grace Hartley is a Strategy & Operations Associate at PegaSys, the protocol engineering team at ConsenSys. Her role with Hyperledger Besu is business-focused. Some of her activities include promoting Hyperledger Besu within the community and engaging with companies using Hyperledger Besu for their use cases. Prior to joining PegaSys, Grace was a management consultant at KPMG in the Financial Services practice. She has a Bachelor of Science in Business and Enterprise Management from Wake Forest University.

Maryam Mahjoub manages product marketing for Hyperledger Besu and the PegaSys suite of products. She holds over 12 years of SaaS marketing experience and holds her MSc in Healthcare Leadership. Maryam is a snowbird between Canada and Mexico.

Gina Rubino handles digital and social media marketing for Hyperledger Besu as well as the PegaSys suite of products and team as a whole. She has been involved in the blockchain space for 3 years and has over 10 years of marketing experience with a degree in Marketing Communications. 

Leanne Kemp, Everledger 

Leanne Kemp is Founder and CEO of Everledger and Queensland Chief Entrepreneur. In her role as CEO, she works to increase transparency and trust with technology, in close collaboration with industry partners. Leanne co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Manufacturing and takes part in the Global Future Council on Blockchain. She also leads workstreams at the Global Blockchain Business Council and co-chairs the World Trade Board’s Sustainable Trade Action Group.Leanne’s awards include the AIM Global Allan Gilligan Award 2019, Advance Global Australian Awards 2018 for Technology Innovation, and Innovator of the Year 2016 and 2018 at the Women in IT Awards (London). More recently, Leanne has been appointed to the Global Blockchain Business Council as a Regional Ambassador of Australia, an Adjunct Professor in the Institute for Future Environment at the Queensland University of Technology, and Blockchain Advisory Board Member of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Lisa Butters, Honeywell

Lisa is the General Manager for the GoDirect Trade Greenhouse business, which is considered a genuine “garage-style” software start-up inside the Honeywell four walls. She has over 15 years of experience in multiple functions across Honeywell Aerospace. A tech geek at heart, she graduated from college at 19 and started her career as a teenager in web development and database programming. Through the years, she has been passionate about developing her craft in the User Experience.

GoDirect™ Trade is blazing a trail to push the $4B aerospace used parts industry far outside its comfort zone. It is the first marketplace to require price, product images and quality documents to post a listing. It is the first marketplace to give sellers the opportunity to launch customized storefronts to maintain brand identity. Lastly, it’s the first platform to leverage Blockchain to provide consumers as much part history as possible to help make buying decisions quicker and easier. Everyone wants transparency and everyone wants it easy. GoDirect™ Trade is determined to provide both. 

GoDirect Trade recently earned a coveted spot on the Forbes Blockchain 50 list alongside tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Google and Square. Lisa is a recipient of the Honeywell CEO Award and was the first recipient of the Honeywell Aerospace Navigator Award. She has served as a board member on About Care which empowers people to live independently and has also served on the Chandler Arizona Transportation Commission. She is a member of The Connected Place Council which is sponsored by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council and is a volunteer volleyball coach for the YMCA. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Arizona State University, a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Arizona State University, and a Master’s degree in Finance from Harvard University.

Mary Hall, Oracle

Mary leads Oracle’s global marketing for the Oracle Blockchain Platform. In this capacity, Mary works to deliver Oracle’s messaging on the benefits of Blockchain technology.  She works closely with partners and customers to develop case studies, videos and blogs around blockchain projects. Mary was voted one of the “Top 100 Women in Blockchain” by Richtopia. She has also been voted one of the TOP 100 INFLUENCERS IN THE AREA OF IDENTITY by One World Identity. Mary has won many awards for marketing hardware & software products, as well as social media and digital marketing.  She is a member of the Hyperledger Group Marketing Committee and the Supply Chain Marketing Special Interest Group. Mary holds a JD from the Univ. of Toledo College of Law and a BA in English from Miami Univ. Oxford, Ohio. 

Prior to joining Oracle, she was with IBM for 13 years in a variety of marketing roles, including blockchain marketing.

Heather C. Dahl, Sovrin foundation

Heather C. Dahl is the CEO and Executive Director of the Sovrin foundation, the nonprofit working to administer the Sovrin Network–an open source system using distributed ledger technology for decentralized identity. Under her direction, the Sovrin Network has expanded to six continents, enabled enterprises around the world to develop applications across all verticals, and ushered in a revolution in decentralized digital identity. Heather is widely-respected as a thought leader in cybersecurity technology and media with over 25 years of strategic leadership experience in newsrooms, multinational corporations, and high-tech startups. She has a Masters of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University, a Masters of Science from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and a Bachelors of Arts from Willamette University.

Walmart

Archana Sristy, Sr. Director – Blockchain Platforms, Walmart Global Technology

Archana Sristy is committed to creating innovative solutions to solve business problems at Walmart. As Senior Director of Engineering, she is responsible for software engineering and operations functions for Walmart’s enterprise Blockchain Platforms team. Her teams implement blockchain at scale, powered by Hyperledger Fabric, for driving Food Safety in our supply chain. 

An advocate for diversity in tech, Archana is also FIRST youth mentor with 4H and sponsors Asian Women in Technology (AWIT) and Women in Technology (WIT) groups at Walmart. 

Asma Ishak-Mahdi, Senior Buyer – DSCSA Serialization Lead for Walmart Health and Wellness

Asma Ishak-Mahdi received her PharmD from the University of New Mexico, her MBA for Executives from California State University and has completed advanced education from Saïd Business School at Oxford University in London. A strong advocate for digital transformation, problem-solving, process improvement, and technology-infused initiatives, she is respected by her peers as a leader who is dedicated to further advance the profession of pharmacy.  

With over 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and a passion for innovative technology, she’s served in numerous roles and committees at Walmart and has recently joined Walmart Corporate Offices as the Lead for Drug Serialization under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, DSCSA. She is also serving as the Blockchain Lead for Health and Wellness and has led two successful blockchain pilots for the FDA’s DSCSA Pilot Project Program while working with industry partners in defining attributes of an electronic interoperable system for data exchange to comply with the Federal mandate. 

Her professional interests focus on evaluation of blockchain technology in the pharmaceutical industry to solve for use-cases such as waste mitigation and cold-chain monitoring and in serving to develop young leaders. In addition, she served as the industry expert advising graduate students at Rutgers Business School in collaboration with the Healthcare Distribution Alliance Research Foundation and at the Sam M Walton College of Business. 

Nischala Murthy Kaushik, Wipro

Nischala is the Global Marketing Director for the CTO Office at Wipro. As the marketing partner and advisor to the CTO office, she crafts and executes high impact integrated marketing programs for emerging technology and innovation areas – like blockchain, open source, robotics and smart machines, industry academia research, open innovation. As part of her role as at Wipro, Nischala is an active champion of enterprise blockchain and Hyperledger technologies. She overseas global marketing initiatives for blockchain for Wipro and, as part of the Hyperledger PR / marketing committee, provides input on enterprise use cases on Hyperledger, thought leadership contributions to the community blog and support for Hyperledger events across the globe.

She is a writer, mother, IIM (Indian Institute of Management) alum (a top business school in India), speaker (TEDx, industry, academia), horizon gazer and polymath artist. She is part of the jury for Marketing Awards like DMA ECHO awards. Most recently, she was a Winner (Among Top 3 in India) for the Women Leadership Influencer Awards | Women In Tech – Leader / Innovator / Disruptor of the year category & WICA (Women In Corporate Awards) – Growth Champion (Among Top 3 in India). She uses her voice for causes that she believes in like supporting the case of #WomenAtWork, nurturing skills for new age talent.